Capital Briefs: Panel Calls for Better Derivatives Risk Disclosure

their derivatives activities in annual reports, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision reported last week. There is, however, much room for improvement, the committee concluded in a statement issued Wednesday. "Despite encouraging advances in disclosure practices by a number of institutions, many continue to disclose very little about their involvement in trading and derivatives activities or about the risk exposures that arrive from them," the committee said. The Basel Committee represents bank regulators from 12 wealthy nations. Comparing bank and securities firms' annual reports for 1993 and 1994, the committee found several companies provided "quantitative information on their market risk exposures and their performance in managing this exposure" for the first time last year.